Pre-requisites:
Before adding new letters to Cx we must check that the letter has been approved and adheres to LiveWest's Tone of Voice. If there are any legal communications or anything a bit unusual, such as different colour fonts, this must be approved by comms first.
The requester will hopefully provide you with the word template as well as their change request form.
- To edit existing Word templates in Cx you must have 'Use word to edit template' box ticked on your Profile in Cx:
Guidance:
- Open the Cx Test environment.
- Type 'Comm' in the top right-hand-side Quick menu and click on 'Communication definitions' within the Configuration menu items.
- When the communication definitions screen loads, you will find list of existing communications on the left-hand-side menu.
- Click on the Letter name to open the communication settings. Settings can be edited and saved as required. If renaming the document, please do not special characters in the document name as this conflicts with the record centre integration. However, hyphens '-' are acceptable. This will rename all the existing documents too.
- Click on the Parameters tab to review any existing Parameters. Double click each Parameter to open and edit its configuration.
- To add in any new required Parameters, click on New Parameter. If a new Parameter is not required move onto step 14.
- Add the Parameter name with no spaces. Choose a name which describes the question/prompt well to the team who will be generating the letters E.G. The Aftercare team wants to add the Area Aftercare Manager to their letters so we added a Parameter titled 'AreaAftercareManager.'
- Add the Parameter description.
- Parameter order will default to 0. If you have multiple Parameters to add you may wish to order them, by assigning an order number to them, in the same order they are required in the letter. If you have one Parameter leave it as it is.
- Select the appropriate Data Type, in most cases this would be Text. [NB. There is an existing fault logged with Civica where the PM time selected in the DateTime Parameter defaults to AM so please avoid using the DateTime Parameter.]
- If you wish to make the Parameter non-mandatory, to allow the generators of the letters to save draft letters without this information, make sure the mandatory box is not ticked.
- Tick the include as an additional tag tick box to allow you to add this new parameter to your document template.
- Click Save and check that you can see the new parameter you have just created.
- To check the letter settings, navigate to the Templates tab and highlight the Template. Settings will appear on the right-hand-side of the page.
- Check that the Default Queue field has 'Send to PDF'. This puts the document in the correct queue to be sent to SharePoint.
- Check Default Template field is ticked.
- Check Queue Override Allowed field is ticked.
- Check Double Sided field is ticked if they wish to print double sided letters.
- Check Colour field is ticked if they wish to print in colour.
- Check SSRS is not ticked. This is used for SQL server reports instead of Word Templates. Therefore is not required for Word Templates.
- If you have changed any settings click on Save.
- Preview the letter in Cx. Once you are happy with the blank template and template settings, you can now edit it in Word.
- Click on the Template to highlight it
Click on 'Edit template in word' button.
The Template will be saved to your Downloads folder.
Open the file from your Downloads folder.
Login to Cx via the Cx Add In within the document.
Your Username is your domain and full name E.G. ads.ondomain.co.uk\jen.coffey . NB. You may have to check what your username is in the environment you are in in the user details quick menu.
Your Password is your laptop password.
Once you have logged in successfully you will see the Entities, Tags, and Parameters on the right-hand-side menu. Please note that it will give you all of the Entities and their Tags, but only the relevant Entity tags, based on the Module and Entity fields the template has been added to in Cx, can be successfully added to the word document.
Before adding any information to the Letter, please update the Margins. Click on Layout> Margins > Custom Margins and the custom margins pop-up menu will appear.
Change the Top Margin to 2.
Change the Bottom Margin to 3.75. This must be done, on the first page to allow for the footer.
Change the Left Margin to 2.
Change the Right Margin to 2 and Save.
[If the letter is two pages long, you will need to add a page break after the first page, and add a custom margin from that point forward with a Bottom Margin of 2.]
The letter must have 5 spaces at the top so that it fits into an envelope correctly.
Copy and Paste the letter wording from the word template provided by the requester into the letter.
On the Developer Tab click on Design Mode to see the Placeholders around existing tags.
To add a tag to the letter, click to place the cursor where you would like the tag to be entered, then double click the tag in the right-hand-side Add-Ins menu.
Format the tags. Using format painter, highlight the tag and ensure it will have the same formatting as the body of the letter.
Check the spacing of the tags.
Parameters can be added the same way as tags. Take care to remove any template text that is no longer required and add the appropriate spacing.
Again, format the Parameters. Using format painter, highlight the Parameter and ensure it will have the same formatting as the body of the letter.
Read through the document and check there are no spelling or grammar mistakes.
Once you are happy with the letter click on Upload to Cx.
A pop-up will appear asking if you would like to save the document. Click Yes.
You will then see a successful message.
In Cx, click on the template and you will now see an updated preview of the Letter. [Sometimes the address will not preview in this screen, but it will show when the letter is generated in the system.]
Ensure the Effective From Date is set to todays date on both the Letter settings and the template in Cx.
Click on Save and close this screen.
You can now test generating the updated letter, as a user would, in Cx Test.
Once the requester is happy with the letter it can be added to Cx Live, you can also future date the Effective From Date if required.
If you have changed the letter name, as shown in Details > Communication Hayley Light must be informed. Please send Hayley an email [email protected] as this will affect the alias in SharePoint with the same letter name. You must do this so that the letter will successfully be recognised once it has been sent from Cx to the Record Centre.